The Real Folk Blues: a prequel
by KazukiYotsuga
Summary: Spike, Julia, Vicious. Need I say more?


This is a fanfic about the events prior to Cowboy Bebop. How Spike was presumed dead by almost everyone in the start of the series wasn't thoroughly explained in the entire series. His relationship with Julia and Vicious wasn't really that detailed either, leaving me room for a fanfic. I'm not planning on ruining Cowboy Bebop the masterpiece and I don't think this will do any harm to the series.

Spike Spiegel, Julia, and Vicious are property of Keiko Nobumoto .Cowboy Bebop is directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and licensed by Bandai Visual. I do not own any characters.

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Being a boy growing up all alone here on a random slum city on Mars is anything but easy. Ever since I started to realize I wasn't a kid anymore, life has been getting tougher and tougher by the day. Everyone has to take care of themselves with no one to rely on. Crime happens everyday, the galaxy is too wide of a place for justice to be enforced. Though "the law and the government" deals with small time crime, the real thing maintaining justice around here are the big-time syndicates. They're above the law, by far. Anyone who's anyone who's planning on being on top won't be able to do with without the syndicates' help. An on top of all the top syndicates is the Red Dragon, a multi-billion syndicate founded by God-knows-who. All I know is that they're a bunch of old men, controlling everything from the shadows. From economy, law, order, top 5 on the Mars Music charts, you name it; they're all rumored to be controlled by the Red Dragon. But as they say, struggling to be on top isn't easy and the Red Dragon are in need of some men, so I heard.

Three talks with three different acquaintances, a poker game, and a bar room brawl later, I end up making it into a recruitment initiation. Red Dragon was looking for the best guys who can get the job done and this was their way of doing it. Have a bunch of guys dish out each other and only the last two of them who're still capable of standing are let into the syndicate.

The sun glows bright orange as the clock hits the 5 o'clock mark. Below the clock tower down at main street, I light up a smoke, and take a sip. There's no better time for a smoke, especially when it could be very well your last one. 21 years into my life and I haven't done nothing except smoke, watch old earth martial arts movies, play shooting and fighting video games, and fend for myself. Wonder if it'll ever work out for me here.

As my stick burns almost to the end, several people arrive on the scene. One person in particular caught my eye though. A man wearing a black coat with white hair and eyes that gleam through the darkness. He arrives with a bunch of these guys but I could tell he wasn't with them. Looking at him, I could tell in an instant he wasn't just any man. This was a man who had seen many battles who has experienced lots of wars in the past. He humbly walked towards me, and asked, "Hey, can I have a light?" sticking a cigarette into his lips. I did what any cowboy would do. Then, he sits beside me.

"Why don't we just team up and take care of all these losers, what do you say?", he asked looking at all the silly people warming up for the upcoming brawl, a gunfight to the bitter end.

I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and say "Sure" with a half-sure tone. It really didn't make sense to me why he'd ask me among all the people that showed up.

Not a single word was uttered for the entire duration of the wait. The only thing I ever did after giving him a smoke was count the grenades and ammo I had saved up just for this occasion. All he ever did was smoke and clutch his katana. I wasn't sure what an ancient blade from the east was going to do in a gun fight, but I'm sure he has something up his sleeves besides that blade of his.

It wasn't long before a limo arrived on the scene and everyone stood up. A hand popped out of the window. It signaled a go. And a voice said, "You may start slaughtering each other."

Right after those words were spoken, everyone glared at each other turning from right to left, it would have seemed in slow mo. Everyone was looked at everyone like it was kill or be killed. All prior alliances, conversations, and truces, were all forgotten. Everyone wanted to be one of those two people who would be left standing. No one wanted to just die. The place was desolate, the public was no where to be seen.

Then, as the car window closed up. A rattle of simultaneous rapid gunfire could be heard from all directions. Splinters, ammo, and dust flew everywhere. With every ounce of will to live in me, I pull a really fast dodge roll to my left, where a bunch of crates were stacked, and where I heard the least gunfire from.

The tension really made my hands tremble. I take off the safety from my two 45 calibers. It wasn't my first gun fight. But in all the ones I've been through, I was fighting alongside others, and I wasn't fighting for myself or my life. This time is quite different.

Leaning on the crates behind me, I take a quick glance at the chaos that happened behind me. Everything was a blur, with everything happening too quickly. Then, I looked in front of me. There it was two people pointing a gun at my direction. In a split second I raise my hands pointing my guns at them, jumping sideways as if my life depended on it. I aimed for their arms, I didn't want to take their lives even though I knew they were willing to take mine. I fire 4 shots. Two from each gun. I hardly felt any recoil or the pain I got from when I hit the ground. I only saw the two get hit on the arms and dropping their guns. They got shot eventually by the people behind me. I turned to look behind me. All I saw were silhouettes because of the sun's glare. They apparently were reloading what would seem to be sub machine guns. I guess, people fight in teams too. Without hesitation, I shoot their legs without any second thought. As they fell, I kick their Uzi sub machine guns away, making a roll to a drum can near by in one single motion.

I grab two magazines and start reloading. Taking quick breaths, I take defensive stance and watch my surroundings really carefully. There, in the middle of the crossfire, I saw him, the man with the blade, making an effort amidst a crossfire, I wasn't sure if my eyes were deceiving me, but I could have sworn he deflected a bullet with his katana, and returning fire with his magnum. Magnums were high-recoil firearms, but he fired it as if there wasn't any recoil. Then, taking a close look behind him was a man with a sniper rifle, pointing at him at point-blank range. I took aim and shot the man on the arm, making him drop his sniper.

Then, turning back, I saw 5 people running towards me with Ak47s and the likes. They we're barely aiming, and I wasn't sure if I could easily get through them alive. Then, everything started to sound deafeningly quite. I was in a state of incredible focus. I practically tried to dodge them as they started to fire.

But all of the sudden. 1 of them got a bullet hole through his head, one after another they started dropping dead. I turned to look back, and before I could turn a 180 degrees, someone rests his back on me whispering, I've got your back. It was the man with the blade.

"Just in case we don't make it out here alive, the name's Vicious."

"Thanks for the cover back there, people call me Spike."

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Hope you've enjoyed the first chapter. I won't be able to update really quickly. But I'll try my best though.


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